The Charlotte Democrat., 1887-08-26
Southern Farmers and the Tariff.

We have already alluded in these col
umns to the remarkable speech delivered
by Gen. Miles of Mississippi, before the
Interstate Farmers Convention in At
lanta. Indeed, we have printed the speech
itself, and have thus been the means of
placing before the farmers of the South
the common sense views of one of our
most successful farmers. Combining the
views of an agriculturist who knows all
about the situation at the South, Gen.
Miles, speech is worthy of the serious
study of Southern farmers.
He touches upon some very serious and
severe subjects, and his comments throw q
flood of light on the situation. He pre-
sents some facts that our farmers would
do we'll to consider seriously. Gen. Miles
tells the farmers that it is very convenient
for them to trace all their ills to a pro-
tective tariff In this they only follow
the cue given them by the small poll
ticiaus and the demagogues who seek to
mislead.
There is nothing more convenient, for
instance, than for the farmer who is un.
successful to trace all his troubles to the
protective tariff. Every little crossroads
politician-every little whipper-suapper,
who wants to go to Congress, will con-
vince him that but for the tariff he would
be rolling in wealth.
Gen. Miles makes short work Of this
sort of poppy-cock. He tells the farmers
that if they expect to succeed they must
live quietly at home, wear level heads,
and use keen, bright eyes in their busi-
ness. The tariff falls as heavily on mer-
chants and business men as on the farmer,
h.,o rnh .SF1oH t1pF
wants to secure their votes for Congl ess,
the farmers are told that the tariff is
running them. This is one of the most
COM venient of arguments, and it has been
ding -donged into the ears of those who till
the soil until great many Of them have
come to believe that the tariff is tax
levied on them by the crowned heads OF
Europe.
Gen. Miles makes short work of this
sort of nonsense. He shows that the tax
paid every year by the farmers on their
hog and mule flesh is ten thousand times
more than the tax imposed on them by
the tariff Compared with the taxes
| which the farmer imposes on himself by
his extravaganza, the tariff tax is but as a
mote in the sunbeam.
Since the war Gen. Miles has paid a
debt of two hundred thousand dollars,
| with ten per cent interest. How did he
do this? By sitting down and discussing g
the tariff? Not at all; but by putting his
shoulder to the wheel; by economizing;
| by adapting his business sense to his farm
operations; by taking such advantage OF
circumstances and conditions as any sensi'
Bile man would do. When Gen. Miles
comes to discuss the tariff, he puts in some
chunks of common sense that are likely
to prove some what embarrassing to the
| pseudo-statesmen who go before the farm
ers hereafter with lot of gibberish in fa'
vor of free trade. Gen. Miles wants to
know what tie tariff is on Cincinnati hog,
or on Kentucky mule, or on western hay
and corn, or on northern made fertilizers.
These things are not put down in the
tariff list, but the tax they impose on the
farmer amounts to many thousands more
than the tariff tax. But the politicians
never touch on these things. They know
| nothing of them. The tariff is the thing.
I-AtldntG Constitution, Dem.